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TENNYSON'S USE OF 
THE BIBLE 



BY 



EDNA MOOEE EGBmSON 

Fellow of the Johns Hopkins University, 1916-1917 



^ mis&ttmicn 



SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVEBSITT STUDIES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVEBSITY 

IN CONFOKMITT WITH THE BKQUIBEMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OP PHILOSOPHY 

19 17 



BALTIMORE 
J. H FURST COMPANY 

1917 



TENNYSON'S USE OF 
THE BIBLE 



BY 




EDNA MOORE JIOBIKSON 

Fellmo of the Johns Hopkins University, 1916-1917 



aE>t00ercacton 



SUBMITTED TO THB BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 

IN CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF'PHILOSOPHY 

19 1V 



BALTIMORE 

J. H. FURST COMPANY 

1917 



Qv^^ 




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x^^ 



This dissertation comprises the Introduction and first two 
chapters of a fuller study on Tennyson's Use of the Bible, printed 
in Hesperia, Erganzungsreihe 4. Heft, 1917. 






THIS STUDY IS DEDICATED 
TO 

JAMES wilso:n bright 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Intkoduction 1-23 

CHAPTER I 

The Period of Simplicity 24 

CHAPTER II 
The Period of Combination 37 



PEEFACE 

In his essay on Dryden, Macaulay incidentally characterizes 
the English Bible as " a book which, if everything else in our 
language should perish would alone suffice to show the w'hole 
extent of its beauty and power." The statement carries more 
of accuracy than of hyperbole. For the -English Bible contains 
almost every species of literature and contains each species in 
varied forms. The historic books are fine examples of simple 
narration. They are impartial and objective in quality and 
often dramatic, vivid, and picturesque. They run the whole 
scale from the naive biographies of the patriarchs to the digni- 
fied annals of the Kings. The prophets afford examples of 
eloquence which in richness of diction, in pathos, and in aus- 
tere rebuke have never been surpassed. The lyric outbursts of 
the Psalms compare favorably with any other similar utterance 
of the troubled or gladdened heart. The idyl of Ruth was 
included in one of the volumes of " Little Classics " by a criti- 
cal editor whose selections were much commended. Among 
elegies the Lamentations of Jeremiah have a secure position. 
Popular and laconic wisdom is constantly quoted from the book 
of Proverbs. Ecclesiastes is a philosophic meditation. Joh 
is an Epic, — " The Epic of the Inner Life " as Prof. Genung 
styles it. And finally, the Song of Songs reveals something 
very much like the shifting scenes and dialogues of the drama. 
Many biblical critics place it in that class. 

If we take into consideration the various general qualities of 
literature, the Bible still affords a broad vision. W. Trail, in 
his Literary Characteristics and Achievements of the Bihle,^ de- 
votes instructive chapters, each with numerous sub-headings, 
to The Figurative, The Sublime, The Pathetic, The Pictur- 
esque, and The Poetic in the Scriptures. A still further com- 

* Cincinnati, 1864. 



vi Preface 

prehensiveness is to be observed in the relative maturity of ex- 
pression. The style of the biblical writers varies from the 
simplicity of childhood to the elaborateness of the man v^ho 
knows rhetoric and the value of stylistic expressions. Pro- 
fessor J. H. Gardiner ^ effectively contrasts the story, in First 
Samuel, of David killing Goliath with the story, in the Acts, of 
the viper which fastened on Paul's hand at Malta. It is a far 
cry from the short clauses, the simple connectives, and the un- 
premeditated simplicity of the former to the finish and grace of 
the latter. It is still farther to the involved sentences and the 
sidetracking clauses of the speeches and epistles of Paul. ISTo 
one can rise from the reading of this admirable study without 
feeling a new and stronger sense of the innumerable kinds and 
grades of literary expression contained in the Bible. 

But tho the English Bible is a library of writing containing 
literature of every species and in every stage of development 
it is, nevertheless, a single volume. It is a translation. The 
translation is so faithful to the original tongues and writings 
that in the main it preserves their variety. But it is, after 
all, a translation into one language and a translation into that 
language when it was highly developed. When the English 
Bible was made, good English, as Matthew Arnold says in the 
introduction to his Great Prophecy of Israel's Restoration, 
" was in the air." " Get a body of learned divines," — so he 
goes on, — " and set them down to translate, the right meaning 
they might often have difficulty with, but the right style was 
pretty well sure to come of itself." The sixteenth century 
which developed the wonderful English of Shakespeare was the 
century during which the English Bible gradually acquired its 
greatest idiomatic beauty, grace, and power of style and expres- 
sion. Tyndale's version of the ISTew Testament was published 
in 1525. The people were eager for the Bible-truth, and the 
phrases and idioms of Tyndale passed into the common stock 
of the speech of the people. Good writers took them, as if by 

' J. H. Gardiner, The Bible as English Literature. New York, Charles 
Scribner's Sons, 1906. 



Preface vii 

instinct, from the speech of the people and wove them into their 
productions. It is doubtless difficult in many cases to say 
whether a given phrase comes from the colloquial speech or 
from the English Bible. It may in reality come from both. 
But oftener than is always realized it originally came from 
Tyndale or Coverdale. Thus the English Bible was, in all 
the circumstances, sure to be good English as well as magni- 
ficently diversified English. It was sure to be largely Saxon, 
for the speech of the people and the century was, in the main, 
guiltless of foreign derivatives, at least of those with the later 
and artificial colorings. It was sure to be concrete, because of the 
characteristic concreteness of the original. It was sure to be 
metaphorical for all Hebrew words even those for spiritual 
ideas have an evident physical meaning or connection. It was 
sure to be forcible, for the lash of an active conscience drove it 
on. It was even sure to be rhythmical, for altho it lacked rime 
and meter, it had parallelism which was the rhythmic " heaving 
and sinking of the heart " reproduced in balanced clauses, and 
it had, moreover, a fine onomatopoetic quality. 

It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the Bible has had 
a great influence upon English writers. John Ruskin acknowl- 
edged his indebtedness : " To that discipline [of reading the 
English Bible and memorizing extended portions of it] I owe 
. . . the best part of my taste in literature . . . ; once know- 
ing the 32nd of Deuteronomy, the 119th Psalm, the 15th of 1 
Corinthians, the Sermon on the Mount, and most of the Apoca- 
lypse, every syllable by heart, ... it was not possible for me, 
even in the f oolishest times of youth, to write entirely superficial 
or formal English." ^ Tennyson declared that " the Bible 
ought to be read, were it only for the sake of the grand English 
in which it is written, an education in itself." ^ Coleridge 
{Table-Talh, June 14, 1830) believed that " Intense study of 
the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar in point of 
style." A number of similar testimonials have been collected 

^ Fors Clavigera, I, x, 5. * Memoir, i, 308, note 1. 



viii Preface 

by Professor Cook ^ from many different writers. But perhaps 
the most striking example he cites of the power of the Bible to 
influence an author's style is that of John Bunyan : '' When a 
writer, with a native vigor, lightness, and rapidity of his own, 
has become wholly permeated, as it were, with the thought and 
diction of the Bible, . . . we have from him such a clear, sim- 
ple, and picturesque style as that of Bunyan." ** 

No author's use of the English Bible is more instructive than 
that of Tennyson. The reason for this lies both in the com- 
pleteness and in the limitation of it. Tennyson knows his Bible 
as completely as Bunyan, but unlike Milton, Browning, and 
others, he has no poem on a biblical subject. He makes no use 
of poetical figures derived from the original Greek or Hebrew 
as Milton was constantly doing. ''^ He uses the English Bible 
only. It furnished him with material for artistic portrayal 
thruout his whole career. The various rhetorical devices by 
which he made his use of Scripture effective have been briefly 
indicated in the Introduction. It is not the purpose of this 
paper to give them in full at this time. Nor am I attempting 
to do the same thing for Tennyson that Bishop Wordsworth has 
done for Shakespeare or Mrs. Machen for Browning.^ There 
is no question here as to the indebtedness of Tennyson to the 

^Albert S. Cook, The Bible and English Prose Style. Boston, D. C. 
Heath & Co., 1892. 

* Op. cit., Intro, xiv. 

'For example, Milton (P. L., i, 21) selects his word "brooding" with 
conscious conformity to the Hebrew'"'?''!}"^ (cf. John P. Peters, Journal 
of Bibl. Literature, xxx and xxxiii). Satan is in Hebrew ' enemy ' (P. L., 
I, 81 f.). Birds and animals (P. L., v, 197, cf. vii, 451), are called "living 
souls," which is warranted by the use of n*n r^^ at both Gen. ii, 7 and i, 20. 
Angels are called "ardours" (P. L., v, 249, cf. 277 and Isa. vi) because 
Seraphim in Hebrew are "burning ones." Urania (P. L., vii, 5 f.) is 
'Heavenly One' (Greek Ovpavia). The corrupt clergy {Lycidas, 119) 
are " blind mouths " (see Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, I, 22) . David Masson 
has additional observations of this character in the notes of his edition 
of The Poetical Works of Milton (1890). 

'Charles Wordsworth, Shakespeare's Knoivledge and Use of the Bible j 
London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1880; Mrs. Minnie Gresham Machen, The Bible 
in Browning, New York, Macmillian Co., 1903. 



Preface is 

thought and sentiments of Scripture. The single attempt is to 
discover from Tennyson's use of Scripture the successive and 
orderly stages of his artistic and poetic development. Here is a 
poet who used biblical phrases and images in one way in his 
earliest lines, who used them in another way in subsequent 
poems, and in still other ways in productions that were later 
and later yet. If the following pages have any new value it lies 
in exhibiting the orderly development and progress of a great 
poet's genius by showing that progress and development as seen 
in the successive stages of his artistic use of the English Bible. 
The Bible is familiar to all. Tennyson's other material is less 
familiar. . The way of using the familiar, once clearly seen, is 
a key to the use of the unfamiliar. It is an outline of it. It 
is a clear path thru the beautiful forest. Seen as a whole it is 
a bird's-eye view of the total landscape of a great artist's far- 
stretching career. 



INTKODUCTIO^ 



Some years ago Tennyson's frequent and effective use of the 
English Bible began to attract my attention. Out of this inter- 
est grew the idea of making a complete list of the late Laureate's 
references to Scripture. The practical result took the form of 
two tables. One of these follows the order of biblical book, 
chapter, and verse. The other follows the final published order 
of Tennyson's poems. The total number of citations in these 
tables is about two thousand. To print them with even a slight 
indication of their verbal connections would require many 
pages. The limitations of this study evidently forbid such an 
attempt at this time. Specimens will, however, be given at the 
close of this introduction. 

After a while the idea occurred to me of arranging the more 
important references into a chain running thru the entire 
Bible; each link would thus represent a single citation by the 
poet of some scriptural passage. The fact that the citations fall 
so close together as to recall or at least suggest almost the entire 
contents of the Bible is a striking testimony to the prevalence of 
Scripture in the poet's pages. This scriptural chain proved 
very lengthy. Two brief sections of it, however, one from 
Genesis and the other from Matthew, may be given here by way 
of illustration. These, taken together with the specimens from 
the reference tables, will suffice to show how thickly set the 
pages of Tennyson are with occurrences of biblical import. 

Beginning then with the very first chapter of Genesis we see 
the spirit of God move over the primeval deep.^ Light follows 
the creative fiat.^ In the sixth cycle nature moulds man ^ in the 
divine likeness * and assigns him dominion over creation.^ 

' De Profundis, n, i. * De Profundis, n, ii. 

^Princess, ni, 306. ^ Two Voices, 20 f. 

^Two Voices, 16-18. 



2 Tennyson's Use of the Bible • 

The four rivers ^ flow through the garden ''' of Eden.^ The mist 
keeps it green ^ even without any rain.^^ There are no thorns 
under the grateful shadows of the huge trees. -^^ Mazily the 
brooks murmur. ^^ Everything is plentiful and good.^^ Adam 
divinely moulded out of dust ^^ keeps the garden ^^ and Eve is 
there in her snowy beauty/^ both of them unf alien and divine. ^'^ 
Happy is Adam's embrace of Eve,^^ for she was made for him/^ 
bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. ^^ There is no shame of 
nakedness ^^ and the bright moon glows upon their bridal 
bower. ^^ 

Then comes the fall.^^ The serpent creeps in -^ and stirs 
the vice that ruins.^^ The " apple " is plucked ^^ and the expul- 
sion from Paradise follows.^'^ The days of the curse come with 
their toil ^^ and their sweat^^^ the days of the trampled serpent 
and the wounded heel,^° and the return of man's dust to that of 
earth.^^ The cry of Abel's blood is heard,^^ and though Cain 
declares he is not his brother's keeper,^^ he feels his punishment 
beyond bearing,^^ and with the preserving mark upon his fore- 
head ^^ wanders off to the land of ISTod.^^ The echo of his crime 
is still heard in the song of Lamech.^''^ 

The dim line of patriarchs appears in Methusaleh,^^ and 
N^oah with his ark.^^ The penalty of the corruption of the 

^ Geraint and Enid, 763 f. ''^ Foresters, li, i, 93. 

' Gardener's Daughter, 187. * Merlin and Vivien, 359. 

^ Happy, 33. ^ Becket, iii, i, 91. 

' Geraint and Enid, 768 f . " Becket, Prolog, 368. 

" Geraint and Enid, 770. '' Tioo Voices, 229. 

^^ Maud, I, xviii, 625. "^Foresters, iv, i, 139-142. 

" Milton. =^ Locksley Hall, 60 yr., 242. 

" Enoch Arden, 557. " Queen Mary, in, v, 35. 

" Introduction to Palace of Art, 17 flf. 

" Lady Clara Vere de Vere. ^ Maud, ii, i, 34. 

*« Maud, I, xviii, 625. =^ Becket, i, iv, 175. 

'"'' Happy, 33. ^Harold, v, ii, 111. 

" Day Dream, L'Envoi, 253-7. ^ Queen Mary, iii, ii, 34. 

" Edwin Morris. ^ Becket, i, iv, 185. 

^ Rizpah. " Maud, ii, iv, 185. 

" Vision of Sin, 190. ^* Promise of May, i, 344. 

" In Memoriam, cxxxi. =' In Memoriam, xii. 

'^Tivo Voices, 358-360. 



Introduction 3 

sons of God and daughters of men ^° is the breaking up of the 
great deeps *^ in the deluge. ^^ Babel is builded and its tongues 
are confounded.'*^ Lot's wife is stiff with encrusted salt.^^ 
Esau's rough hand ^^ is no match for the finer one of Jacob who 
sees his ladder-of -heaven '*^ with its ascending and descending 
angels,*''' meets Rachel by the palmy well/^ serves seven years 
for her,"*^ and returning with wealth has his night struggle ^* 
with the unknown power ^^ which blesses him.^^ His fear that 
his gray hairs will be brought in sorrow to the grave ^^ is done 
away and his dying blessing upon Joseph is bounded by the 
everlasting hills alone. ^* 

In Matthew we find the wise men with their gifts ^^ follow- 
ing the flying star to Bethlehem. ^^ Joseph is warned in his 
dream. ^''^ John the Baptist announces the kingdom of heaven ^® 
and Him whose fan will purge His floor,^^ and who will garner 
the wheat, and burn the tares with unquenchable fire,®° After 
his fast of forty days ^^ Jesus is tempted by Satan to fall down 
and worship him,^^ He calls Peter and Andrew to be fishers 
of men.^^ He begins the Sermon on the Mount with its beati- 
tudes : Blessed are the poor in spirit.®* The meek shall inherit 
the earth.®^ The persecuted have their reward in heaven.^® 
The salt must not lose its savor. ^''^ He comes not to destroy but 
to fulfill.®^ His word will endure when heaven and earth 
pass,®^ and the fires of hell '^^ await him who says to his brother 



*" Aylmer's Field, 44. 

" Becket, v, iii, 24. 

^ Sonnet, X. 

■" Princess, iv, 59, 466-7. 

** Princess, \i, 224. 

*^ Godiva. 

* By an Evolutionist, Old Age, 2. 

*' Palace of Art, 143. 

^^ Aylmer's Field, 679. 

** Promise of May, ii, 59-60. 

" To— ( ' Clear-headed friend ' ) . 

" In Memoriam, xcvi. 

^^ In Mem,oriam,, cxxrv. 

^Aylmer's Field, 111. 

" Dream of Fair Women, 226. 

^Morte d' Arthur, 283 f. 



^Holy Grail, 452. 

"Harold, i, ii, 55. 

^* Church Warden, x. 

"* Queen Mary, ni, iv, 227. 

*" Queen Mary, V, v, 69. 

^Harold, Vf, iii, 101. 

'-Becket, in, iii, 213. 

'^Harold, n, i, 21. 

^Aylmer's Field, 754. 

°° The Dreamer. 

** Queen Mary, v, ii, 66. 

''Maud, I, ii, 78. 

^ Queen Mary, in, iii, 121. 

'"Lover's Tale, I, 68. 

''^Princess, V, 444. 



4 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

" Thou fool." Injunctions follow: Agree with thine adversary 
quickly. '^^ Look not on a woman.'^^ Cut off the offending 
hand.'^^ To him that smites on one cheek turn the other. '^^ 
Hate not your enemy/^ but love and bless him.'^® Pray that 
the Father's name be hallowed ''^ and His will be done.'^^ Serve 
not Mammon. '^^ The lilies toil not ^*? but God clothes them 
with better apparel than Solomon's.^^ Let each day's evil suf- 
fice without foreboding for the next.^^ As ye measure it shall 
be meted to you.®^ Cast no pearls to swine ®^ lest they turn 
and rend you.^^ Knock and it shall be opened.^^ Narrow is 
the way to life.*''^ There are no figs from thistles or grapes 
from thoms.^^ He that hears and does, builds on the rock; ^^ 
he that hears and does not, builds on sand ; ^^ and all these say- 
ings are spoken with authority. ^^ 

In converse fashion a running paraphrase of each poem might 
be given which would show the exact nature and extent of the 
Scripture it contained. This would also enable the reader to 
compare the usage of Scripture in any one poem with that in 
any other. As an example of how this might be done the fol- 
lowing synopsis of the biblical element in Merlin and Vivien is 
here given. To follow this method with all the poems would 
also require many more pages than are available at this time. 

Vivien scornfully likens the vows of Arthur's Knights to 
those of the angels who neither marry nor are given in mar- 
riage.^^ She feels the perfect hate for them which, like perfect 
love, casts out fear.^^ Arthur himself is not pure, for there 



''^Becket, il, ii, 234. 

" Queen Mary, i, v, 253. 

" Queen Mary, tv, in, 413. 

'* Queen Mary, i, i, 82. 

" Locksley Hall, 60 yr., 94. 

''* Akiar's Dream, 74. 

"De Profundis, Human Cry. 

" May Queen, Conclusion, 10. 

'"Maud, I, i, 46. 

'^ Lotos Eaters, 36, 37. 

^Becket, m, i, 27. 

" Foresters, i, i, 239. 



^Aylmer's Field, 316. 
^*8ir John Oldcastle, 110. 
^^ Becket, li, ii, 89. 
^Becket, v, iii, 34. 
" Church Warden, iv. 
*' Riflemen Form. 
" Edwin Morris, 6. 
" Becket, iii, iii, 39. 
" Coming of Arthur, 260. 
"' Matthew, xxn, 30. 
'' 1 John, IV, 18. 



Introduction 5 

is no being pure, as Holj Writ declares.^* Both Arthur 
and Vivien, tho in different ways, leavened their associ- 
ates.®^ When she went from the Court she left death behind 
her.®® Merlin likened her curiosity to that of Eve by which 
mankind was originally ruined.®"^ She herself regarded Perci- 
vale not as a spotless lamb of Christ ®^ but rather as some black 
wether of Saint Satan's fold.®® Merlin mitigated her censure by 
referring to the case of the Psalmist.^*'" But when she persisted 
in letting her tongue rage like a fire among the noblest names ^^^ 
Merlin rebuked her for judging all nature from her feet of 
clay.^*'^ Soon, however, she fell to wailing that her own affec- 
tions were being used to stab her to the heart, seethed like the 
kid in its mother's milk.^*^^ 

The passages of Scripture used by Tennyson are distinctly 
and individually recognizable. Yet his art never leaves them 
as he finds them. After long study and several attempts at 
classification I found certain rhetorical devices or practices 
of treatment by which he used Scripture so as to make it speci- 
ally effective for his poetical purposes. These devices show the 
student of English composition how ordinary images and 
phrases may be given an enhanced effectiveness. An added 
value is also given to this study by the fact that Tennyson em- 
ployed similar rhetorical devices and practices with reference 
to his art in general. This detailed study of his rhetorical 
usage of biblical material thus serves as a kind of index or illus- 
tration of his minor artistic methods in general. This may be 
a sufficient justification for presenting at this point a skeleton 
outline, with a few brief examples under each division, of the 
various artistic methods referred to above. A sharp distinc- 
tion, however, must be made between this skeleton or outline 
of rhetorical methods and the larger features or stages of the 

** Romans, m, 10; Proverbs, xx, 9; Job, xxv, 5 f . 
''^Matthew, xin, 33; Galatiwns, v, 9. 
»«2 Kings, IV, 39 f. >»» 2 Samuel, xi. 

'"Genesis, in, 1-6, ^'^^ James, in, 6. 

"^John, XXI, 15; 1 Peter, i, 19. ^"^ Daniel, rr, 33. 

'^Revelation, n, 9. ^'^ Exodus, xxiii, 19. 



6 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

poet's use of biblical material which will be treated in the main 
body of this study. These features or stages are chronological 
and represent successive periods of artistic development. The 
outline of rhetorical uses, on the contrary, represents, in the 
main, methods in use thruout the entire range of the poet's 
published works. The principle of division here is not chrono- 
logical and progressive, but rhetorical and artistic merely. 

1. As may be noticed first, Tennyson intensified scriptural 
expressions, by making them more concrete or by giving 
them a livelier action or more vivid coloring. Jacob's ladder 
reached to heaven, but Tennyson hangs it upon a single star.^^"* 
The fountains of the great deep are not only broken up as in 
the Bible but they also hiss against the sun.^^^ Michael fight- 
ing against Satan becomes Michael trampling Satan. ^^^ The 
worm that never dies becomes the scorpion worm that twists in 
hell and stings itself to everlasting death. ^"'^ 

2. A second method which Tennyson employed very effec- 
tively was that of reversal. He frequently reversed the order 
or meaning of a scriptural expression or gave it an unexpected 
change of application. It is to Death, not Christ, that the 
senses say, as they crown him, " Omega, thou art Lord." ^^^ 
In the days of bloody Mary it is ignorance, not wisdom, that was 
seen crying in the streets. ^°^ Solomon may come to Sheba 
yet ^^^ and man be the one to ask hard questions and woman 
the one able to answer them.^^^ The monks instead of selling 
all they have and giving to the poor, take all the poor have and 
give it to themselves. ^'^ Mary's new commandment is " Thou 
shalt do murder." ^^^ The beautiful cross presented to Rosa- 

^**5t/ an Evolutionist, Old Age, 2; Genesis, xxvrn, 12. 

'^"^ Becket, v, iii, 24; Genesis, vn, 11. 

^^ Last Tournamient, 668; Revelation, Xii, 7-9. 

^'''' Last Tournament, 450 f; Isaiah, LXVI, 24. 

^"^Two Voices, 278; Revelation, i, 8. 

"»Q«een Mary, iv, iii, 242; Proverbs, i, 20 f. 

"^^ Princess, u, 328; 1 Kings, X, 1. 

^Princess u, 324-334; 1 Kings, iv, 31; i Kings, X, 1. 

"'Foresters, ra, i, 103; Matthew, xix, 21. 

^ Queen Mary, ni, i, 242; Matthew, xix, 18. 



Introduction ' 7 

mond is to remind her not only of Him who died for her but 
also of Henry who lives for her.^^* 

3. In addition to intensifying and reversing scriptural 
words and conceptions, Tennyson is found comparing non- 
scriptural things with scriptural in such a way as to give the 
outside thing greater clearness or greater beauty. Edith was 
fairer than Rachel by the palmy well, or Euth among the fields 
of corn, and the equal of the angel that said " Hail." ^^^ The 
Lord in afflicting Ulrich with leprosy has set upon him a crueller 
mark than Cain's.^^^ Cyril tells his protectors at the institute 
that they will receive no less royal a welcome when they come 
to visit him and his friends than the Queen of Sheba did when 
she went to visit Solomon. ^^'^ Lutterworth where Wiclif was 
rector is no less important a town than Bethlehem, for in it the 
word was born again.^^^ Not to desire or admire, if one could 
but learn it, were better than to walk in a garden of spice. ^^^ 

4. The Bible furnishes Tennyson with much material for 
similes. The leper is at last to stand transfigured like Christ 
on Hermon hill.^^*^ To worn-out Harold a snatch of sleep were 
like the peace of God.^"^ The blazing tower of the Red Knight's 
Castle, like the pulsations of the northern lights, made moun- 
tain and lake for half the night glow like the sunrise-redness 
upon the water which Moab thought was the redness of blood.^^^ 
Lancelot's outraged conscience drove him into wastes and soli- 
tudes as the demon did the Gadarene.^^^ At young Henry's 
crowning, John of Salisbury glanced furtively about as " a thief 
at night who hears a door open and thinks ' The Master.' " ^^^ 

"^ Becket, ii, i, 167; 2 Gorinthiwns, V, 15. 

^^^ Aylmer's Field, 679 f.; Genesis, XXEX, 10; Ruth, ll; Luke, i, 28. 

"^^^ Happy, 18; Genesis, iv, 15. 

"' Princess, li, 330 f . ; 1 Kings, X, 4 f . 

"*/8fir John Oldcastle, 24 f.; Micah, v, 2. 

^" Maud, I, iv, 142 f.; Song of Solomon, iv, 10. 

"» Happy, 38 ; M&ttheic, xvii, If. 

^Harold, v, i, 104; Philippians, TV, 7. 

^Last Tournament, 481 f.; 2 Kings, ni, 20-23. 

^^ Lancelot and Elaine, 250 f.; Luke, vrn, 29. 

^* Becket, in, iii, 77-80; Matthein, xxiv, 43. 



8 Tennyson's Use of the Bible • 

As Jesus reserved the best wine at Cana till the last, so xirthur 
reserved Lancelot's story of his search for the Holy Grail.^^^ 

5. After comparisons and similes come metaphors. Here the 
material is very rich and varied. Childhood is a porch of which 
the two pillars are parents. If one pillar falls, the burden 
of care trembles upon the other. ^^® To the " new woman " of 
the intensest type men are an Egypt plague, ^^'^ whose very 
presence reminds her of her days of bondage and toil in the 
Egypt of subjection to man.^^® Maud's lover says she has 
neither savor nor salt,^^^ but afterwards declares that the whole 
inherited sin of the family belongs to her scapegoat brother.^^*^ 
If Harold should break his oath the hosts of heaven would send 
their celestial troops to dash the torch of war among the stand- 
ing corn of England.^^^ Averill's audience should shroud the 
great sin of separating Edith and Leolin in Pharaoh's dark- 
ness. ^^^ Sir Edward Head, the sour, self -centered conservative, 
is vexed with a morbid devil in his blood,^^* and any bill that 
would work changes would be the last drop in his cup of gall.^^^ 
Man superstitiously worships the Baal of his own worst self ^^^ 
and women Molochise their own babes. ^^^ Becket insists that 
the customs of the church are Peter's rock,^^''^ and with grate- 
ful assumption accepts the applause of the crowd as praise from 
the mouths of religious and mental babes and sucklings. ^^^ 

6. In all the foregoing biblical descriptions, comparisons, 
metaphors, and other rhetorical methods Tennyson writes with 

"^"Holy Grail, 759 f.; John, ii, 1-10. 

^^ Lover's Tale, i, 214; 1 Kings, vii, 21. 

'^''Princess, v, 417; Exodus, vii-xii. 

^^ Princess, iv, 109 f.; Exodus, i, 14. 

^^ Maud, I, ii, 78; Song of Solomon, TV, 16, 

^^ Maud, I, xiii, 485; Leviticus, xvi, 21. 

^" Harold, ii, ii, 406 f . ; Judges, xv, 4, 5. 

^^Aylmer's Field, 771; Exodus, x, 21. 

^Walking to the Mail, 13; Matthew, XV, 22. 

^Walking to the Mail, 61; Matthew, xxvn, 34. 

^ Aylmer's Field, 644; 1 Kings, xviii, 28. 

^^ Harold, i, i, 18; Leviticus, xvin, 21. 

^'"Becket, l, iii, 13; Matthew, xvi, 18. 

^Becket, n, ii, 158; Psalr^s, viii, 2. 



■ Introduction 9 

a vivid sense of the details implicitly contained in the scripture 
images used, tho not directly mentioned in the biblical lan- 
guage itself. This leads to so many effective extensions of 
scriptural expressions that the practice is worthy of separate 
mention. It does not connote, of course, a separate rhetorical 
device coordinate or homogeneous with the preceding ones of 
simile, metaphor, etc., but refers to a habit or characteristic 
which pervades all of them alike. The " valley of weeping " 
has a lower end where there is a grave.^^® The " water wears 
away the stones " by falling drop by drop ^^° upon them and 
hollowing them out.^^^ The " grievous wolves " drag the scat- 
tered limbs of the church into their dens.^^^ The five belated 
Virgins find the wedding night to be dark and chill. They 
have heard of the bridegroom's sweetness and long to kiss his 
feet and find the light.^^^ Our " earthly house of this taber- 
nacle " has Life and Thought as its careless tenants who have 
gone away leaving the doors and windows open. The shutters 
should be closed, for the tenants have bought another house in a 
distant city.^^^ Tho the work of purging out the old leaven 
may in a general way be complete, some of it may still stick 
to a man's tongue. -^^^ It is not only in the sweat of his brow 
but also of his breast, arms, legs, heart, and liver that a man 
eats the king's venison. ^^^ When Lazarus in his grave heard 
Mary weeping outside, was he affected by her tears? Where 
was he, in fact, during those four days ? ^^'^ God moulded man 
from common clay, but he tempered the mixture with the tears 
of angels. ^^^ 

Still other categories might be mentioned but what have been 

^Promise of May, ni, 186; Psalms, Lxxxiv, 6. 

^^ Charge of Heavy Brigade, Epilogue, 59-61; Job, xiv, 19, 

^*^Becket, irr, iii, 237 f.; Job, xiv, 19. 

^'^ Queen Mary, i, v, 226 f.; Acts, XX, 29. 

^*^ Guinevere, 166-177; Matthew, xxv, 1 flF. 

*** The Deserted Bouse; 2 Cori^thia/ns, v, 1. 

^^ Queen Mary, i, iii, 39 ; 1 Corinthians, V, 7. 

^^ Foresters, iv, i, 139-142; Genesis, m, 19. 

"' In Memoriam, xxxi; John, xi. 

•** Intro, to Palace of Art, 17 S. ; Genesis, u, 7. 



10 Tennyson's Use of the Bible , 

given are sufficient to show the nature of this rhetorical study. 
It is altogether too extended and detailed to admit of more than 
a brief indication of it here. In mj complete manuscript the 
number and variety of instances is many times greater. A 
sentence in the outline given above often corresponds to a whole 
page in the full treatment. Each category is, moreover, sub- 
divided into several minor categories and numerous and com- 
plete examples are cited under each. This rhetorical study is 
thus, also, a book in itself and cannot of course be included 
here. These various studies outlined in the preceding pages 
of this introduction, and here omitted for lack of space, the 
writer hopes to publish at some future date. 

Tenyson made artistic use of Scripture thruout his entire' 
poetical career. He used it in the various rhetorical ways just 
outlined. But while studying these in detail I became more 
and more aware of certain larger tones, features, or stages in 
the poet's methods of dealing with the Bible. It finally occurred 
to me that these larger modes and attitudes had a definite chron- 
ological succession. They evidently coincided with the main 
divisions or periods of the poet's artistic life and work. This 
discovery, however simple, has considerable value. Its value 
would be smaller if Tennyson had used Scripture fitfully or 
only at certain periods of his career. If he had given himself 
vigorously at times to biblical subjects the same would be true. 
But in the case of Tennyson, as contrasted, for example, with 
Browning, it is the artistic temper and method alone that are 
in evidence. He has no poems whatever on biblical subjects. 
N^ot even Rizpah is an exception to this statement. In the 
Bible, then, we have a single definite variety of material, the 
artistic use of which Tennyson never abandoned. When a great 
artist changes his material or his theme, his new subject or new 
matter may, at least in part, be the cause of his new attitude 
and method. But where the same material is continuous, the 
change must be in the artist himself. By following Tennyson's 
changing uses of the Bible we see more clearly than in any 
other one way the changes in the man himself and his essen- 
tial methods. 



Introduction 11 

In the case of Tennyson tlie need of establishing some such 
single clue or guide is unusually evident. For Tennyson was 
constantly going back to poems written years before and revis- 
ing them by adding, by erasing, by altering, and even by rear- 
ranging. The effect is exceedingly confusing to the student of 
chronological development. To find satire and allegory in a 
single early and simple idyll seems to indicate that the poet 
had no specific allegorical period as distinguished from a satir- 
ical one or from the period of simplicity. But with the suc- 
cessive periods of artistic uses of Scripture once clearly estab- 
lished, the investigator knows where to suspect the revising 
hand. The study of the early and successive editions always 
verifies his suspicions and at the same time makes the stages 
and periods stand out with greater clearness than ever. 

In roughest outline, then, Tennyson's use of the Bible for 
the purposes of his art may be divided into six successive stages 
or periods : The Period of Simplicity ; the Period of Combina- 
tion ; the Allegorical Period ; the Satirical Period ; the Dra- 
matic Period ; and the Period of Disuse. There are some over- 
lappings, recrudescences, and anticipations; but, on the whole, 
the divisions are remarkably distinct. They are not distinct 
like the air-tight chambers of the nautilus which our newer 
science describes, but resemble, rather, the old-time nautilus of 
which the divisions were separate enough but had a mem- 
braneous tube admitting of subtle transfusions back and forth. 
N^otwithstanding these subtler connections the divisions are 
sufficiently clear, so long as attention is directed to the main out- 
standing features. It is hoped that the nature of the six great 
periods mentioned above and the evidence establishing them 
are indicated with reasonable plainness in the following pages. 

The scope of the present study is limited to artistic stages 
and methods. But the English Bible is the English nation's 
religious book. Poetry and religion are closely akin. James 
Martineau anticipated their ultimate identity. The national 
religious book has therefore a somewhat intrinsic relation to 
an English poet. Tennyson's own personal experiences, more- 



12 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

over, vibrated in sensitive sympathy vdth all the great scientific 
and theological evolutions and revolutions of the sixty years 
thru which his poetical work extended. They inevitably 
affected not only his general relation but also his artistic relation 
to his religious book. It is also well known that it was along 
the paths of his religious and biblical faith that his personal 
sorrows vsrrought so deeply upon his poetic life. In Memoriam 
is generally considered his greatest work. In that poem he 
comes to very close quarters not only with the science and phi- 
losophy of his day but also with the objective statements and 
the inward spirit of his Bible. An intense personal relation 
to the Scriptures comes in to mould and influence his poetic 
use of the biblical material. Fully to trace the interwoven 
workings of personal poetic development, of contemporary 
thought and history, and of individual experiences upon Ten- 
nyson's use of the Bible in making his poetry would, of course, 
be an impossible task. But a mere reference to the complete 
problem may serve to quicken an interest in the partial study 
that is offered here. 

SPECIMENS OF TABLES 



TABLE I 
(Following Biblical Order of Book, Chapter, and Verse) 

Old Testament 
Exodus 

1 : 14 The Princess, iv, 109 f. 

3:5 The Poet's Mind, ii. 

3:8 The Lover's Tale, i, 326. 

Y-12 The Princess, v, 417. 

7:19 (12 : 22) Becket, i, iii, 201-4. 

9 : 23 The Promise of May, i, 558. 

10 : 21 Aylmer's Field, 771. 

12 : 22 (7:19) Becket, i, iii, 201-204. 

13 : 21 Despair, 29. 

14: 20 The Lover's Tale, i, 290 f. 



Introduction 13 

14: 21 The Palace of Art (Early Ed.). 

15:1 Harold, v, i, 337 f. and 351 f. 

15 : 20 The Princess, iv, 122. 

15 : 20 (Judges, 4:17) The Princess, v, 500. 

15 : 23 Becket, v, ii, 43. 

16:15 Supposed Confessions, 114. 

20: 2-17 Becket, v, i, 111. 

20 : 3 Becket, ii, ii, 130 f. 

20 : 5 The King, 149 f . 

20 : 7 Despair, 52. 

20: 7 Sea Dreams, 185. 

20 : 11 Queen Mary, i, v, 31. 

20 : 14 Becket, in, i, 143 f. 

20 : 16 Akbar's Dream, 96. 

21 : 23 Becket, i, iii, 228. 

23 : 11 (34: 26) The Northern Cobbler, 38. 

23 : 19 Merlin and Vivien, 867. 

28 : 30 The Coming of Arthur, 298. 

32 : 1-4 In Memoriam, xcvi. 

33 : 9 Harold, iii, i, 201. 

34: 26 (23 : 11) Vastness, v. 

Leviticus 

16:8 Harold, i, ii, 118. 

1.6 : 10 (16 : 21) Maud, i, xiii, 485. 

18 : 21 Aylmer's Field, 671 f. 

18 : 21 Harold, i, i, 18. 

18:21 The Dawn, i. 

20 : 21 Queen Mary, i, ii, 40 f. 

Numbers 

6 : 25 The Princess, ii, 174. 

13 : 23 To E. Fitzgerald, 27. 

16 : 32 Becket, v, iii, 109. 

16 : 32 Harold, ii, ii, 425. 

16 : 32 The Lover's Tale, i, 591. 



14 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

20 : 11 Supposed Confessions, 115 ff. 

21 : 24 The Princess (Prolog), 15. 

Deuteronomy 

10 In Memorian, cm. 

16 Becket, i, iv, 252 f. 

13:15 Becket, i, iv, 211 f. 

31 : 8 (Isaiah 41 : 13) Columbus, 156 f. 

Joshua 

2:18 (6 : 17) Queen Mary, iii, ii, 23. 

6:5 Doubt and Prayer. 

6:17 (2:18) Queen Mary, iii, ii, 23. 

8 : 20 Achilles over the Trench, 7. 

10 : 12 Locksley Hall, 180. 

Judges 

4 (Ex. 15 : 20) The Princess, v, 500. 

4:5 Enoch Arden, 494. 

5:1 (4:4) The Princess, vi, 16. 

6 : 17 Enoch Arden, 487, 492. 

8:16 Buonaparte, 13 f. 

11 : 30 The Plight, 26. 

11 : 30 A Dream of Fair Women, 201 f. 

11:33 A Dream of Fair Women, 237- 

244. 

11 : 34 A Dream of Fair Women, 197- 

199. 

11 : 34 Aylmer's Field, 280. 

11 : 37 A Dream of Fair Women, 181- 

188. 

13 : 19-21 Owd Eoa, 94 f. 

15:4-5 Harold, ii, ii, 406 f. 

16: 17 The Palace of Art (Old Ed.). 

16 : 30 Becket, iii, iii, 57-59. 

19 : 29 Aylmer's Field, 759 f. 



Introduction 1 5 



Job 



1:21 The Two Voices, 239. 

2:9 The Two Voices, 2 f . 

3:1, 3 Charity, xii. 

3 : 17 The May Queen, Conclusion, 60. 

3 : 21 The Two Voices, 395-397. 

14:1 The Making of Man. 

14 : 19 The Charge of the Heavy Bri- 
gade (Epilog, 59-61). 

14 : 19 Becket, iii, iii, 237 f . 

14: 20 The Two Voices, 53. 

14 : 21 The Two Voices, 256, 257. 

15 : 21 The Last Tournament, 116. 

24 : 20 A Dirge, ii. 

25 : 5 f Merlin and Vivien, 52. 

25:6 Despair, 29-31. 

34 : 15 (Eccl. 3:20) Locksley Hall Sixty Years 

After, 149. 

37 : 18 (Rev. 4:6) In Memoriam, xv. 

38:7 The Holy Grail, 509. 

38:7 A Dream of Fair Women, 3 f. 

38:7, 9 In Memoriam, lxxvi. 

39 : 25 Becket, iir, iii, 92 f. 

41 : 24 Maud, i, i, 31. 

New Testament 

John 

1:3 In Memoriam, Proem. 

1:5 In Memoriam, Proem. 

1:12 Locksley Hall Sixty Years, 122. 

1 : 14 In Memoriam, xxxvi. 

1 : 14 Queen Mary, iv, iii, 92, 94. 

1 : 14 Sir John Oldcastle, 27. 

1 : 22 f Queen Mary, v, iv, 31. 

1:23 Harold, v, i, 45. 



16 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

2: 1-10 The Holy Grail, 759 f. 

3:16 Queen Mary, iv, iii, 95 f. 

3 : 1'7 Queen Mary, iii, iii, 119. 

3:29 Becket, i, iii, 390. 

3:30 Boadicea. 

3:35 Becket, iii, iii, 202. 

4:10 Queen Mary, i, v, 58. 

4:10 Sir John Oldcastle, 124. 

4 : 48 Guinevere, 272. 

6 : 37 Queen Mary, iv, iii, 88 f. 

6:51 Becket, i, iv, 257 f . 

8 : 1-11 Queen Mary, ii^ ii, 5 f. 

8:56 The Lover's Tale, i, 185 f. 

9:6 The Princess, vii, 312. 

10 : 11 Harold, iii, ii, 99. 

10:12 Becket, i, iii, 302. 

10 : 12 f Harold, v, i, 294 f . 

10 : 14 The Holy Grail, 551. 

11 Becket, i, iii, 416. 

11 In Memoriam, xxxi. 

11:16 The Foresters, i, iii, 102. 

11 : 25 In Memoriam, xxxii. 

11 : 50 Queen Mary, iv, iii, 11 f. 

12:3 In Memoriam, xxxii. 

12:13 Enoch Arden, 500-502. 

12 : 13 Queen Mary, i, v, 61. 

13 : 14 Becket, i, iv, 222. 

13 : 33 f Akbar's Dream, 74. 

14 : 6 Queen Mary, iii^ v, 18. 

15 : 13 Becket, v, ii, 181. 

17 : 1 f Queen Mary, iv, iii, 102-104. 

18:36 Becket, v, ii, 10. 

19:5 In Memoriam, lxix. 

19 : 11 Becket, ii, ii, 257 f. 

19 : 11 Queen Mary, rv, ii, 94. 

19 : 17 Sea Dreams, 186 f. 



Introduction 17 

19 : 34 Balin and Balan, 110 f . 

19 : 34 Balin and Balan, 547 f. 

19 : 39-41 The Lover's Tale, i, 670-673. 

20 : 12 Locksley Hall Sixty Years, 277 f. 

20 : 13 The Last Tournament, 492-494. 

20 : 17 Becket, v, iii, 78. 

21 : 15 Merlin and Vivien, 747. 

Acts 

1 : 20 Aylmer's Field, 786. 

1:20 Becket, ii, ii, 146 f . 

2:1-4 Sir John Oldcastle, 33. 

4: 19 (Mt. 26 : 70) Becket, ii, ii, 122-124. 

4:32 Queen Mary, v, v, 40 f . 

5 : 30 (Mt. 15 : 3) Ayhner's Field, 794 f. 

6:15 Guinevere, 591 f. 

6:15 The Two Voices, 223. 

7 : 55 The Two Voices, 219-225. 

7 : 57 f The Two Voices, 222. 

7:59 f The Princess, iv, 484. 

7 : 60 The Two Voices, 224. 

9:4 Sir John Oldcastle, 97 f . 

10 : 11 Becket, in, iii, 109-111. 

10 : 11 To E. Fitzgerald, 10-12. 

12 : 1 Queen Mary, in, iv, 116-117. 

12 : 11-17 Queen Mary, in, ii, 39-42. 

12 : 21-23 The Palace of Art, 219 f. 

16:18 St. Telemachus, 63. 

17 : 6 Becket, n, i, 128 f., 130 f. 

17:27 (Ps. 65:2; 

Eom. 8 : 16) The Higher Pantheism. 

19 : 34 Literary Squabbles. 

20 : 29 The Princess, n, 173. 

20:29 Queen Mary, i, v, 226 f . 

20 : 38 Enoch Arden, 212. 

26 : 10 Harold, v, i, 142. 

2 



18 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

Romans 

1 : 17 Sea Dreams, 153. 

1 : 20 The Higher Pantheism. 

1:21 Morte d' Arthur, 301-304. 

2:5 Queen Mary, iii^ iv, 152. 

2 : 15 The Cup, ii, 67. 

3:6 Queen Mary, iv, iii, 87. 

3:8 Harold, v, i, 98. 

3:10 Merlin and Vivien, 50 f . 

3:23 Becket, v, ii, 307. 

4:15 Pelleas and Ettarre, 472. 

6:23 Wages. 

6:23 The Wreck, 93. 

7:7 Pelleas and Ettarre, 472. 

7:18 St. Simeon Stylites, 56 f. 

7 : 18, 19, 23 The Two Voices, 301-303. 

8:16 (Ps. 65:2; 

Acts, 17: 27) The Higher Pantheism. 

8 : 17 Becket, v, iii, 18. 

8:24 In Memoriam, Proem. 

8:28 Sea Dreams, 154 f. 

8:28 Harold, Show-Day, 1876. 

8:28 Will Waterproof, 55 f. 

8:29 Despair, 97. 

8:34 The Princess, vii, 74. 

9 : 27 Queen Mary, in, i, 168. 

10:6-8 In Memoriam, cviii. 

10 : 17 Queen Mary, in, i, 157. 

12 : 14 Akbar's Dream, 75. 

12:15 Queen Mary, iv, iii, 10. 

12 : 17 Harold, v, i, 99 f. 

12 : 19 The Voyage of Maeldune, 120. 

12 : 20 Romney's Remorse, 137 f. 

13:4 Queen Mary, iv, iii, 121. 

13:8 The Miller's Daughter, 207. 

14 : 4 The Grandmother, 95. 

14:15 The Last Tournament, 62. 



Introduction 19 

TABLE II 
(Following Order of Poems) 

The Two Voices 

1 1 Kings, 19: 12. 

2f Job, 2:9. 

6 Psalms, 139 : 14. 

16-18 Genesis, 1 : 26. 

20 f Genesis, 1 : 26. 

20 f Psalms, 8 : 6. 

.53 Job, 14:20. 

198 f Psalms, 8:5. 

212 Genesis, 2:8. 

219-22.5 Acts, 7:55. 

222 Acts, Y:57f. 

223 Acts, 6: 15. 

224 Acts, r : 60. 

229 Genesis, 3 : 17-19. 

239 Ecclesiastes, 5 : 15. 

239 Job, 1:21. 

251 Luke, 6: 29. 

256 f Job, 14:21. 

264 Psalms, 103 : 16. 

278 Revelation, 1 : 8. 

301-303 Romans, 7: 18, 19, 23. 

303 Galatians, 5 : 17. 

358-360 Genesis, 3. 

389 Genesis, 6 : 14. 

395-397 Job, 3:21. 

462 Philippians, 4 : 4. 

The Princess 

Prologue 15 Numbers, 21 : 24. 

II, 76 Song of Solomon, 4 : 12. 

II, 123 f Hebrews, 11 : 9. 



20 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

II, 173 Acts, 20: 29. 

II, 174 Numbers, 6 : 25. 

II, 324 f 1 Kings, 10:1. 

II, 328 1 Kings, 10 : 1. 

II, 329 1 Kings, 4: 31. 

II, 330 f 1 Kings, 10 : 4 f. 

Ill, 212-214 Esther, 1: 12. 

Ill, 242-244 Proverbs, 10: 1. 

Ill, 306 Genesis, 1 : 3. 

III, 309 f 1 Corinthians, 13 : 12. 

IV, 59, 466 f Genesis, 11 : 9. ' 

IV, 109 f Exodus, 1 : 14. 

IV, 113 Matthew, 16:18. 

IV, 122 Exodus, 15 : 20. 

IV, 207 f Apocrypha, Book of Judith. 

IV, 292 Jonah, 4:6. 

IV, 319 2 Corinthians, 3 : 6. 

IV, 388 Luke, 21: 18. 

IV, 484 Acts, 7:59f. 

V, 376 1 Corinthians, 5 : 6 f . 

V, 417 Exodus, 7-12 (chapters). 

V, 444 Matthew, 5 : 22. 

V, 500 Exodus, 15 : 20. 

V, 500 Judges, 4. 

VI, 16 Judges, 5 : 1. 

VI, 17 Isaiah, 21:9. 

VI, 17 Revelation, 18:2. 

VI, 17 Revelation, 14 : 8. 

VI, 224 Genesis, 19:26. 

VII, 74 Romans, 8 : 34. 

VII, 188 Song of Solomon, 2 : 15. 

VII, 244 1 Corinthians, 12: 13. 

VII, 312 John, 9:6. 

VII, 277 Genesis, 2 : 8. 

Conclusion 115 Nehemiah, 9 : 6. 



Introduction 21 



In Memoriam 



Proem 1 Peter, 1 : 8. 

Proem John, 1 : 3. 

Proem Psalms, 16 : 10. 

Proem Romans, 8 : 24. 

Proem John, 1:5. 

Proem Psalms, 143 : 2. 

Proem Luke, 17 : 10. 

X Matthew, 26 : 27. 

XII Genesis, 8 : 8, 9. 

XV Job, 37:18. 

XV Revelation, 4 : 6. 

XV Revelation, 15 : 2. 

XVIII 2 Kings, 4 : 34. 

XXII and XXIII Psalms, 23 : 4. 

XXIV Genesis, 3 : 23. 

XXVI Mark, 11: 13, 20 f. 

XXVIII Luke, 2: 14. 

XXX 1 Thessalonians, 4 : 14. 

XXX Luke, 2:9. 

XXXI John, 11. 

XXXII John, 11 : 25. 

XXXII John, 12:3. 

XXXVI John, 1: 14. 

XXXVII 1 Corinthians, 10 : 16. 

XLIII 1 Thessalonians, 4: 13, 14. 

XLIV Hebrews, 1:14; 

Matthew, 18:10. 

LII 1 Peter, 2 : 22. 

LVI Eeclesiastes, 3 : 21. 

LVI 1 John, 4 : 8. 

LVI Hebrews, 6:19. 

LXIX John, 19:5. 

LXXVI Job, 38:7, 9. 

LXXXIV 1 Corinthians, 15 : 3. 

LXXXIV Isaiah, 36: 6. 



22 Tennyson's Use of the Bible , 

LXXXVII 2 Corinthians, 6 : 16. 

LXXXVIII Genesis, 2: 8. 

XCV Isaiah, 28 : 13. 

XCVI Genesis, 32 : 24-29. 

XCVI Exodus, 32: 1-4. 

CIII Deuteronomy, 2 : 10. 

CVI Revelation, 20 : 2-4. 

CVIII Romans, 10 : 6-8. 

CXIV Proverbs, 9 : 1. 

CXX 1 Corinthians, 15 : 32. 

CXXIV (cf . XCVI) Genesis, 32 : 29. 

CXXXI 1 Corinthians, 10:4. 

CXXXI 1 John, 2:17. 

CXXXI Isaiah, 29: 4. 

CXXXI Mark, 16: 20. 

CXXXI 1 Corinthians, 3 : 9. 

CXXXI Philippians, 2 : 13. 

CXXXI Genesis, 2:8. 

CXXXI Luke, 23 : 43. 

CXXXI Isaiah, 52: 8. 

CXXXI 1 Corinthians, 15 : 24, 28. 



Mavd 

21 Malachi, 2:2. 

23 1 John, 3 : 12. 

31 Job, 41:24. 

31 Isaiah, 50:7. 

32 Genesis, 3 : 19. 

33, 36 Micah, 4:4. 

35 Psalms, 116 : 11. 

45 Matthew, 6 : 24. 

46 Matthew, 6 : 24. 

i, 78 Matthew, 5 : 13. 

V, 143 Song of Solomon, 4:16. 

V, 152 2 Timothy, 3 : 13. 



Introduction 23 

I, X, 396 f Ephesians, 4 : 22, 24. 

I, xiii, 485 Xeviticus, 16 : 21. 

I, xviii, 610 Revelation, 21 : 21. 

I, xviii, 613-616 Psalms, 104: 16. 

I, xviii, 614 Song of Solomon, 4 : 16. 

I, xviii, 625 ff Genesis, 2 : 8. 

I, xviii, 625 ff Genesis, 3 : 18. 

II, i, 8 Genesis, 2 : 8. 

II, i, 34 Genesis, 4: 10, 11. 

II, ii, 95, 96 Genesis, 4 : 23. 

II, iii, 132, 136 Ezekiel, 11 : 19. 

II, V, 285-288 Luke, 12 : 3. 



24 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 



CHAPTER I 



The Period of Simplicity 

The term " Period of Simplicity," here employed to desig- 
nate the first stage in Tennyson's use of Scripture, may perhaps 
best be understood by a brief survey of its several character- 
istics. (1) First and foremost the Period of Simplicity is the 
period of the single passage. This fact is that which most 
clearly and sharply distinguishes it from the other periods. 
Each passage of Scripture is cited singly. It is not combined 
with other passages into a complex unity but stands by itself 
in literary isolation. (2) In the second place there is no twist- 
ing or distorting of the scripture wording. Each passage is used 
with faithful adherence to its natural, normal, intrinsic mean- 
ing in the Bible-text itself. The scripture wording is, indeed, 
often amplified, vivified, and creatively renewed, but the poetical 
version of it gives a faithful reflection of the literal biblical 
meaning, and furnishes, as it were, a poetical exegesis or expo- 
sition of it. In later periods Tennyson will take a biblical 
phrase like " Sons of God and daughters of men " and change it 
to " Sons of men and daughters of God " (Aylmers Field, 44, 
45; Genesis, vi, 2), or he will take a Hebrew parallelism like 
" bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh " and change it to 
" Elesh of my flesh was gone, but bone of my bone was left " 
{Rlzpah, 51; Genesis, n, 23). Such "playing upside down 
with Holy Writ" (cf. Foresters, iii^ 103) is found in abundant 
examples in the later periods but is conspicuously absent from 
this first period where the use is simple, direct, literal. ( 3 ) In 
the third place Scripture in this period is sometimes used as a 
scenic background or stage-setting for the poem in which it ap- 
pears. Just as the weather and the seasons form a background 
of nature in keeping with the story in all the Idylls of the King, 
so in this period a biblical scene or picture is occasionally used 
as a background in keeping with the poem in which it is placed. 



I, Period of Simplicity 25 

(4) In the fourth place, and much more striking than the use of 
Scripture as a scenic background, is the use of Scripture con- 
taining the same thought or theme as the dominant thought or 
theme of the poem in which it appears. In this case the Scrip- 
ture furnishes, as it were, the key-note to an understanding of 
the poem. (5) In the fifth place. Scripture is employed to 
make a simple simile as contrasted with a compound metaphor, 
an allegory, or a satirical comparison. Scripture is used for 
purposes of simple, obvious illustration. All symbolic or sati- 
rical use of it is reserved for later periods. (6) Lastly, it is 
only in this first period that we find any extended or elaborated 
treatment of a biblical passage. The citations in the later 
periods are as a rule brief and subordinated to a unifying pur- 
pose of some sort. It is only in this first period that the poet 
takes delight in any broad, sympathetic re-creation of a biblical 
scene or picture for its own sake. 

It is not meant that all these elements of simplicity enu- 
merated above appear in each of the poet's uses of Scripture in 
this early period or appear with equal distinctness. They are, 
however, sufficiently in evidence to establish very clearly that 
there was in the earlier period of Tennyson's career a marked 
simplicity in his employment of biblical citations. The estab- 
lishment of such a period in his treatment of biblical material 
is, moreover, suggestive of a corresponding early period and 
method in his art and mental processes in general. It is hoped 
that the detailed study of his later methods of handling the 
Bible will also prove illustrative and illuminative of correspond- 
ing stages of his artistic career in general; but all that is con- 
tended for at this point is that, just as there was an early period 
of simplicity in Tennyson's attitude toward the Bible, so there 
was also a corresponding early period of simplicity in respect 
of his complete art and craftsmanship. 

The principal portions of Scripture used during this first 
period relate to the portrait of Stephen in The Two Voices; 
the description of the swine in The Palace of Art; the picture 
of the mist in the garden of Eden in Oeraint arid Enid; the sac- 



26 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

rifice of Jephthah's daughter in A Dream of Fdir Women; the 
portrait of Mary at Lazarus' supper in In Memoriam; and the 
song of the foolish virgins in Guinevere. There is a large 
number of other effective citations, but those just mentioned 
are the fullest and most characteristic. The points enumerated 
above in the opening paragraph may be distributed roughly as 
follows: points (1) and (2) apply to all six of these citations; 
point (3) to the passages in The Palace of Art and Geraint and 
Enid; point (4) to all except The Palace of Art and Jeph- 
thah's daughter; point (5) to all except Jephthah's daughter; 
and point (6) to all the passages. These citations may now be 
studied in detail.-^ 

The portrait of Stephen in The Two Voices may be cited at 
the outset in order to make the simplicity of this period imme- 
diately clear. There are, says the poet, calm and disciplined 
souls who have at last become 

Like Stephen, an unquenched fire. 

He heeded not reviling tones, 

Nor sold his heart to idle moans, 

Tho' curs'd and scorn'd and bruised with stones; 

But looking upward, full of grace. 

He pray'd, and from a happy place 

God's glory smote him on the face. (219-225) 

(1) This is the Stephen of the Sixth and Seventh Chapters 
of Acts. 'No other biblical mention of him is added. No 
lines taken from any other biblical hero's face are worked into 
the picture. Tennyson is adhering to his rule of one passage 
at a time. (2) He is also observing his rule of faithfulness 
to the passage chosen. The portrait of Stephen is true to the 
apostolic record. The details are, indeed, concentrated, uni- 
fied, and vivified. The angelic face before the speech, the 
vision at its close, and the act of prayer are vividly interwoven. 
But it is the Stephen that ordinary readers of the Bible know. 
He is not retouched beyond clearest recognition. (4) Further- 

^ For the sake of clearness and convenience the numbered points will be 
inserted at their proper places in the discussion of each citation. 



I, Period of Simplicity 27 

more, there is a harmony or identity of thought between the pas- 
sage chosen and the poem which includes it. The poem is a ser- 
mon of which Stephen is the text. He is, as it were, the inspired 
embodiment of the meaning and motif of the whole poem. 
What else, indeed, is the poem to teach, if it be not to inspire 
that final trust which makes no moan and heeds no bitter or 
reviling voice, but endures and achieves because it has a cleared 
vision of an immortal and over-ruling spirit of love seen in an 
opened heaven ? ( 5 ) But the harmony of thought is, after all, 
essentially simple. There is no use made of allegory, satire, 
or metaphor as in later periods. Stephen is not the symbol of 
a power or faculty of the soul. He is not satirized by some 
bitter skeptic. He is merely the historic scriptural character 
whom some souls resemble; the passage is used purely for the 
purpose of simple illustration, and (6) the poet evidently de- 
lights in it for its own sake as well as in its connections. 

One passage at a time was Tennyson's invariable practice 
during this period. A further illustration of this fact is found 
in the repellent picture of swine in The Palace of Art. 

Godlike isolation which art mine, 

I can but count thee perfect gain, 
What time I watch the darkening droves of swine 

That range on yonder plain. 

In filthy sloughs they roll a prurient skin. 

They graze and wallow, breed and sleep; 
And oft some brainless devil enters in. 

And drives them to the deep. (197-204) 

(1) In these lines the only biblical passage before us {Luke, 
VIII, 30-33) relates to the Gadarene swine. There is no admix- 
ture from outside verses. In striking contrast to this is the 
following passage from Queen Mary taken from a later period 
of this study: — 

Philip. Ay, Lambeth has ousted Cranmer. 

It was not meet the heretic swine should live in Lambeth. 
Mary. There or anywhere, or at all. 
Philip. We have had it swept and garnish'd after him. 
Pole. Not for the seven devils to enter in? 
Philip. No, for we trust they parted in the swine. 

(m, ii, 79-84) 



28 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

Whatever effectiveness these lines may have, it is evident that 
in them the poet does not care to retain a single citation of 
Scripture in separate distinctness, but, for the sake of kin- 
dred imagery, and it may be for other reasons, is willing to 
combine and confuse one passage with another. As in The 
Palace of Art so here there is imagery taken from the story of 
the Gadarene swine. But it is combined with other imagery 
taken from Jesus' comparison of his generation to the house 
to which the exorcised demon returns with seven others {Matt- 
hew, Jill, 43-45). Furthermore, the description is not meant to 
be taken simply and literally but constitutes a compound meta- 
phor to which the dramatis personae contribute their several 
parts. It is just this combining and figurative use of Scrip- 
ture which is conspicuously absent from the Period of Sim- 
picity. The two examples taken together, the one from The 
Palace of Art and the other from Queen Mary — the former as 
an example of what Tennyson does in this period and the latter 
as an example of what he does not do — make exceptionally 
clear the statement that till after his fiftieth year he used 
scriptural passages in an isolated and uncombined form. 

(3) The passage from The Palace of Art also affords an 
illustration of the occasional use of the outstanding scripture 
element in these earlier poems as a scenic background. Such 
a background always serves to enhance and bring out the mean- 
ing of the poem just as the weather and the seasons do in the 
Idylls of the King. Here is the soul in haughty egoistic isola- 
tion looking down upon the contemptible remainder of man- 
kind, now coarse and brutish, and now again filled with the 
red fool-fury of the Seine. There at the back of the stage is 
the painted scene of a proud, strong man watching the swine 
wallow and then with demonic inspiration make their suicidal 
rush into the sea. The two pictures are much akin. (5) Yet 
it is a very simple and unelaborated likeness. It is, indeed, 
satirical in its view of men but there is no satire upon the Scrip- 
ture itself such as is found, for example, in the later additions 
to Merlin and Vivien. 



I, Period of Simplicity 29 

A still further and perhaps more striking example of the use 
of Scripture as a scenic background is that found in Geraint and 
Enid. The description of Eden is as follows: 

And never yet, since high in Paradise 
O'er the four rivers the first roses blew. 
Came purer pleasure unto mortal kind 
Than lived thro' her who in that perilous hour 
Put hand to hand beneath her husband's heart 
And felt him hers again. She did not weep, 
But o'er her meek eyes came a happy mist 
Like that which kept the heart of Eden green 
Before the useful trouble of the rain. 

(762-770) 

(3) The predominant feature of this passage is undoubt- 
edly its scenic quality. The picture of Eden furnishes an 
appropriate scenic background for the story that is being told, 
just as the weather and the seasons do in the same idyll. It 
is the time of mowers and mowing. The sun blazes on the 
turning scythe. The full summer-time is in tune with the ripe 
wedded love of Geraint and Enid and with the ripening strength 
of the Round Table. The reference to Eden is a similarly ap- 
propriate piece of stage-scenery. (4) But there is also a har- 
mony of thought or correspondence of idea between the Bible- 
passage and that of the poem. The picture, or suggested pic- 
ture, of wedded Eden happiness corresponds with the ripe mar- 
ried happiness of Geraint and Enid. There is ideal happiness 
in each case. (5) The harmony of thought is, however, essen- 
tially simple and obvious. The happiness of Enid with Ger- 
aint was like the happiness of Eve with Adam in the Garden. 
The passage is quoted by Tennyson merely for the purpose of 
simple illustration. There is no allegory here, much less any 
satire as in his biblical passages which appear in subsequent 
periods. The rivers are rivers, the roses are roses, the mist is 
a mist, and the rain is a rain. They are not symbols of human 
life, or of love, of doubt or of divine grace. The comparison is 
a simile, and the simile is simple in its precision. The mist in 
Enid's eyes is like the mist in Eden. A simile is made up of 
two halves : the thing and the thing it is like. The thing it is 



30 Tennyson's Use of the Bible , 

like is in this case to be taken simply and literally. In this 
early period Tennyson's biblical figures were essentially similes. 
It is hardly necessary to call attention to the fact that (1) the 
citation is single. Just the one passage in Genesis is used. 
There is no admixture of outside verses. (2) Here also is ex- 
emplified fidelity to the natural, primary meaning of the bibli- 
cal text. The re-creation is finely imagined and skillfully 
wrought, but there is no twisting or distorting of the wording 
or meaning of the Bible-text. (6) Lastly this passage in Ger- 
aint and Enid gives a some"v^hat extended or elaborated picture 
of a Bible-scene and thus affords an illustration of all six of the 
points enumerated above as characteristic of this early period. 
(6) A more striking example, however, than this from Ger- 
aint and Enid of the extended and elaborated treatment of a 
Bible-scene is to be found in the Song of Jephthah's daughter 
in A Dream of Fair Women. (1) Here, too, it may be par- 
enthetically said, the poet still adheres to his rule of one passage 
at a time, which in this case is a few verses from the eleventh 
chapter of Judges. The clear bird-voice of Jephthah's daugh- 
ter sings: 

The torrent brooks of hallow'd Israel 

From craggy hollows pouring, late and soon, 

Sound all night long, in falling thro' the dell, 
Far-heard beneath the moon. 

The balmy moon of blessed Israel 

Floods all the deep-blue gloom with beams divine; 

All night the splinter'd crags that wall the dell 
With spires of silver shine. 

(181-188) 

Leaving the olive-gardens far below. 

Leaving the promise of my bridal bower, 
The valleys of grape-loaded vines that glow 

Beneath the battled tower. 

The light white cloud swam over us. Anon 

We heard the lion roaring from his den; 
We saw the large white stars rise one by one, 

Or, from the darken'd glen, 

Saw God divide the night with flying flame, 

And thunder on the everlasting hills. (217-226) 



I, Pei'iod of Simplicity 31 

(2) The whole song, moreover, is written with simplest 
fidelity to the scriptural story. The poet rearranges the verses, 
to be sure, for the sake of artistic effect and makes the mountain 
song come first. He also gives us imaginative amplifications, 
but there is no twisting or turning of the biblical wording or 
meaning. The Bible gives the one word " mountains." Ten- 
nyson makes it scenic. The noise of the mountain torrent is 
heard and the moon-silvered crags are seen towering above the 
vine-yard village below. The wild beast roars and the moun- 
tain-storm gathers and breaks. The Bible tells of "two 
months." Tennyson expresses this by speaking of one moon and 
of the time " when the next moon was rolled into the sky." But 
however rich and ringing he may make his description, he does 
it in faithful accord with the biblical wording and story. His 
scenery is such as might be used in a geography of Palestine. 
The entire song of the poet, though imaginative, is faithful, 
conscientious exegesis of the biblical narrative. 

In other stanzas the oath of Jephthah is denounced, the 
maiden mourns her childless life, and gathers strength to make 
her death seem a beautiful thing. Still in agreement with the 
original passage {Judges, xi^ 32 f.), she rises into a religious 
fervor that weaves even the geographic names into high music 
for the glory of God. 

' Moreover it is written that my race 

Hew'd Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer 
On Arnon unto Minneth.' Here her face 
Glow'd, as I look'd at her. 

She lock'd her lips; she left me where I stood: 

' Glory to God,' she sang, and past afar, 
Thridding the sombre boskage of the wood. 

Toward the morning-star. (237-244) 

In Memoriam contains many references to Scripture that 
are all simple and direct in the sense already explained. The 
best known is, perhaps, the following: 

And so the Word had breath, and wrought 

With human hands the creed of creeds 

In loveliness of perfect deeds, 
More strong than all poetic thought. (xxxvi) 



32 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

Other examples are: the sinless years that breathed beneath 
the Syrian blue (lii), the hope that reaches behind the veil 
(lvi), the shining hand of Him that died in Holy Land 
(ksxxiv), and the table-scene with the portrait of Mary, which 
may be especially and fully quoted as follows : 

When Lazarus left his charnel-cave. 

And home to Mary's house return'd, 

Was this demanded — if he yearn'd 
To hear her weeping by his grave? 

' WTiere wert thou, brother, those four days? ' 
There lives no record of reply, 
Which telling what it is to die 
Had surely added praise to praise. 

From every house the neighbors met, 

The streets were fill'd with joyful sound, 

A solemn gladness even crown'd 
The purple brows of Olivet. 

Behold a man raised up by Christ! 

The rest remaineth unreveal'd; 

He told it not, or something seal'd 
The lips of that Evangelist. 

Her eyes are homes of silent prayer. 

Nor other thought her mind admits 

But, he was dead, and there he sits. 
And He that brought him back is there. 

Then one deep love doth supersede 

All other, when her ardent gaze 

Roves from the living brother's face, 
And rests upon the Life indeed. 

All subtle thought, all curious fears. 

Borne down by gladness so complete. 

She bows, she bathes the Saviour's feet 
With costly spikenard and with tears. 

(XXXI, XXXII ) 

(1) These lines might be printed in parallel columns with 
the corresponding verses in the twelfth chapter of John. The 
poem makes use of no other scripture material. Certainly the 
" tears " do not come from the seventh of Luke. Mary is not 
a " sinner." Here also one passage at a time marks Tenny- 



I, Period of Simplicity 33 

son's attitude of mind toward Scripture. (2) In addition he 
is also faithful to the natural and literal sense of the fourth 
evangelist. There is no warping of biblical words or phrases. 
Tennyson, to be sure, re-conceives the picture in his own imagi- 
native way and adds new and vivifying details, but he does so 
in agreement with the biblical narrative. There is no wrench- 
ing or distorting of its wording or meaning and the poetical 
exposition is, after all, but a faithful exegesis of the Bible-text. 
(4) Once more, there is scarcely any other passage in the 
whole Bible that could have furnished such a sympathetic at- 
mosphere or such a harmony of thought ; for there is no other 
incident that combines sickness, death, entombment, resur- 
rection, and restoration to home-life and table-talk. It is an 
instance of the complete re-union of souls in and with Christ, 
after the death of one of them who was greatly beloved. What 
else is the long-drawn desire that runs through this whole series 
of a hundred and thirty-one scientific and psychological "po- 
ems " ? It is the gladness of immortality crowning nature and 
human intercourse. It is the resurrection and the life. Even 
the mystery and the questioning that pervade the whole In 
Memoriam are not absent from the scriptural picture of the 
faith. It is the entire poem, as it were, that selects the scrip- 
ture citation. The two convey essentially the same general 
thought. The scripture passage, in a sense, affords a key-note 
to an understanding of the poem. (5) But again the point of 
simplicity needs to be insisted on. The biblical illustration is 
essentially simple and obvious. It serves as a kind of simile 
or picture-half of a simile; but there is no allegory, no meta- 
phor, no abstract speculation, no satire. The portrayal, tho 
discriminatingly profound, is yet simple. It may also be noted 
in passing that the citation in question, in addition to serving as 
an illustration of the underlying thought of the entire poem, 
also incidentally serves to enhance and bring out the special 
principles set forth in the stanzas immediately following in the 
poem. But in either case the nature of the scripture illustra- 
tion is that of plain, obvious simile as contrasted with involved, 
allegorical comparison. 



34 Tennyson's Use of the Bible , 

(6) In conclusion, this passage is also, perhaps, the finest 
example in the period (unless possibly the song of Jephthah's 
daughter be excepted) of an extended and elaborated treatment 
of a Bible-passage. The uses of Scripture in the later periods 
are all brief and incidental to some unifying purpose. This is 
perhaps the best example of that full, imaginative entrance into 
scripture scene and story and of that extended, detailed, poeti- 
cal re-creation of it for its own sake which characterize this 
period and do not reappear in any subsequent one. 

One of the earliest Idylls, Guinevere, furnishes a closing 
example of the qualities of Tennyson's Period of Simplicity. 
In the night Arthur has found the sinful queen in the abbey. 
His figure is spiritual and almost weird. He has paused before 
Guinevere in the darkness. She has hidden her face. 

Then came silence, then a voice, 
Monotonous and hollow like a ghost's 
Denouncing judgment. 

(416-418) 

This at once recalls the highly-wrought passage in Joh iv, 15, 16, 

" A spirit passed before my face ... It stood still 

There was silence and I heard a voice." The night, the weird- 
ness, the silence, and the arraignment of human frailty that 
follows in both cases make the allusion highly effective. The 
effect, however, is direct and simple. (1) The scripture basis 
is that of the vision in Joh alone, '^o other biblical allusion 
is added, and the passage envelops the meeting of Arthur and 
the queen like a presence to be felt rather than described. 

Another scripture passage furnishes, however, a more definite 
and complete harmonious background than this for the subjec- 
tive feeling that pervades the whole idyll. It is in the little 
maid's song of the Foolish Virgins. The motif of Guinevere 
is " Too Late." The queen's parting with Lancelot had come 
too late ; her repentance was too late ; when from the court she 
fled through the night, she 

Heard the spirits of the waste and weald 

Moan as she fled, or thought she heard them moan. 

And in herself she moan'd, ' Too late, too late ! ' 

(128-130) 



I, Period of Simplicity 35 

After Arthur had gone the voice of her last longing was the 
same 

Still hoping, fearing ' Is it yet too late ' ? 

(685) 

Now, the song of the little maid is a peculiarly effective scrip- 
tural background for this sense of sad and irreparable ruin. 

Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill! 
Late, late, so late! but we can enter still. 
Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now. 

No light had we; for that we do repent, 
And learning this, the bridegroom will relent. 
Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now. 

No light! so late! and dark and chill the night! 
0, let us in that we may find the light! 
Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now. 

Have we not heard the bridegroom is so sweet? 
0, let us in, tho' late, to kiss his feet! 
No, no, too late! ye cannot enter now. 

(166-177) 

Tennyson imparts the pathetic feeling of this song to the whole 
abbey as well as to the queen by saying that the nuns had 
taught the exquisite stanzas to the little maid. To summarize 
briefly: (1) it is clear that only one portion of one parable is 
used; (2) that the song is faithful to the evangelist's meaning; 
(4) that the scripture background it affords is natural and 
unaffected ; that the harmony of thought is a simple one — being 
in this instance the idea of irreparableness ; and (5) that there 
is no satire at the expense of Scripture, and no allegorizing of 
its words, but only a simple re-creating from it of a song of 
which the burden is the burden of the poet's story. 

When the four idylls of 1859 were published, two thirds of 
Tennyson's poetic production was still in the future. But that 
two-thirds was to contain among its many songs no successor to 
those of Jephthah's daughter and the little maid. Nothing in 
Eden was to be described in the simple manner of the passage 
in Geraint and Enid. It is in vain to search for any scripture 
portrait like that of Stephen or Mary. It is not within the 



36 Tennyson's Use of the Bible . 

province of this study to discuss the causes in the poet's mind 
or in his age that brought the period of simplicity to its 
close. The matter may perhaps be referable to a theory of the 
gradual and cautious development of Tennyson's mind. Many 
poets start out with complexity and achieve simplicity only 
after years of toil and effort. Tennyson's evolution from sim- 
plicity into complexity is perhaps merely a natural result of 
his self-controlled disposition, of his temperamental restraint, 
and of his increasing richness and variety of mental equipment. 
But whatever the cause of the cessation in Tennyson's case, it 
involved a loss to the laureate's readers. The re-creating of 
the old Bible-scenes was well worth while. The delight they 
still afford is the proof. Whatever pleasure the scripture 
mosaics of the next period may give and whatever spiciness 
there may be in the satirical uses that come still later, the 
paintings of the days of simplicity will nevertheless be missed. 
The subsequent different handling of biblical material will 
yield combinations and polarizations full of beauty and power. 
Many readers, however, would gladly give up the best of them to 
hear the little maid sing another parable, or see another Mary 
whose eyes were homes of silent prayer. 



II, Period of Combination 37 



CHAPTER II 



The Period of Combination 

The Second period in Tennyson's use of Scripture may be 
defined as the period of combination. The period of the single 
passage has given way to the period of combined passages, taken 
in many cases from widely separated chapters. It exhibits the 
following characteristics: (1) the use of each separate scrip- 
tural passage is allusive and suggestive, as distinguished from 
the extended and elaborated uses of the first period; (2) several 
brief citations or allusions are closely connected together to 
form a single unified poetic passage; (3) the unity of each 
combination proceeds from some non-scriptural thought, emo- 
tion, or purpose which, working upon the scripture material, 
coordinates or organizes the separate references ; (4) these 
artistic combinations are based upon, and made possible by, 
an attitude toward Scripture in general that is freer than 
that of the first period ; ( 5 ) this period is marked off from 
succeeding periods by two interesting negative facts, (a) the 
presence of scriptureless allegory, (b) the reverent use of 
Scripture for a satirical purpose. 

1. In this period no scripture citation is wrought out into 
the stanzas of an extended song or into the features of a full 
and living portrait. Even where the use is essentially the same 
in principle, the scripture allusion is never expanded or pic- 
tured out, as in the first period. In Sea Dreams the heated 
pulpiteer casts Babylon, like a great stone, into the sea. The 
noise of the fall becomes a part of the vision in the city clerk's 
dream. But however artistic the employment of the citation, 
it is simply allusive. In Enoch Arden Annie tells her intui- 
tion to Enoch, " I shall look upon your face no more." This 
is evidently meant to suggest the seashore sorrow of Paul's 
friends because they should " behold his face no more." ^ 

^ Acts, XX, 38. 



38 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

Tennyson might have wrought out this beautiful allusion in the 
extended manner of the first period. But he gives only the one 
scripture phrase, which he puts into the mouth of Annie. It 
suggests the picture in Acts, but does not paint it. In Aylmer's 
Field Edith is '' pale as the Jephtha's daughter." The words 
are finely prophetic of her sacrifice to a parent's pride. The 
allusion seems to invite a full artistic portrait like that of Mary 
in In Memoriam. But, again, Tennyson does not paint it. The 
brief words quoted above are all that he actually gives. Such 
condensed allusions as these may now have seemed to Ten- 
nyson more artistic and effective than the earlier and fuller 
elaborations. But the fact that extended portrayal is repressed 
even in such inviting instances as these emphasizes the change 
of artistic method which now appears. The second period 
makes its references to Scripture merely allusive, because only 
brief allusions lend themselves readily to combination with 
others ; and combination is the new and dominant note of this 
period. 

2. The combinations in this period are to be clearly distin- 
guished from mere aggregations of texts and from scriptural 
chains. In the Supposed Confessions there is a long series of 
scripture quotations. There is another in St. Simeon Stylites. 
These aggregations are not, however, anticipations of the method 
of artistic combination. There is perhaps a score of scripture 
references in each of these poems. But no two or more of them 
are directly united into one image, or, taken together, express 
a single thought, purpose, or emotion. The score of citations 
expresses a corresponding score of separate mental conceptions. 

3. The new method appeared with the Enoch Arden volume 

in 1864. Enoch is trying to comfort Annie: 

Cast all your cares on God; that anchor holds. 

Is He not yonder in those uttermost 

Parts of the morning? If I flee to these, 

Can I go from Him? and the sea is His, 

The sea is His; He made it. (222-226) 

Each phrase in this quotation is from the King James Version. 
The passages cited are as far apart as the First Epistle of Peter, 



II, Period of Combination 39 

the Epistle to the Hebrews, and Psalms One-Hundred-Thirty- 
nine and Ninety-five. Yet they are perfectly unified by the 
single idea of comfort that the God who made the sea cares for 
the sea-faring man. The artistic unity is so perfect that it 
makes the reader forget how widely the component phrases and 
allusions are separated from one another in the Bible. Such 
unifying of biblical suggestions marks a new method of handling 
scripture material. There is none of it in the first period. 

Another method of combination consists of a series of allu- 
sions expressing various degrees of a single quality or char- 
acteristic and coming to a climax. It is to be noted that this 
method, if it may be called a method, is an application to scrip- 
ture material of the frequent artistic device of anaphora. 
Two instances out of many may be given here. Galahad 
reaches at last a state of soul in which he always sees the Holy 
Grail. It is 

Fainter by day, but always in the night 
Blood-red, and sliding down the blackened marsh 
Blood-red, and on the naked mountain-top 
Blood-red, and in the sleeping mere below 
Blood-red. 

(Eoly Grail, 472-476) 

Again, the invocation of love upon Victoria: 

May all love. 
His love, unseen but felt, o'ershadow thee, 
The love of all thy sons encompass thee. 
The love of all thy daughters cherish thee. 
The love of all thy people comfort thee, 
Till God's love set thee at his side again. 

[Dedication, 48-53) 

It is in a similar manner that Tennyson uses scripture 
material in Aylmer's Field. Edith is 

Fairer than Rachel by the palmy well. 
Fairer than Ruth among the fields of corn, 
Fair as the angel that said " Hail." 

(679-681) 

The anaphora "is made effective by the three suggestive allu- 
sions to Scripture. Still another style of combination is seen in 



40 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

the swindling mine-promoter's talk in Sea Dreams. Here the 
scripture quotations are unified into a hypocritical appeal for 
confidence. 

When the great Books — see Daniel seven and ten — 
Were open'd, I should find he meant me well; 



" My dearest friend, 
Have faith, have faith! We live by faith," said he; 
' And all things work together for the good 
Of those ' — it makes me sick to quote him. 

(148-155) 

This, then, is Tennyson's new method with Scripture as 
seen in the second period. The contrast with the first period 
is clear. In that period each scripture passage was valued for 
its independent worth. It was not subordinated to the larger 
purposes of any combination. It was a single gem cut and 
polished and set in the surrounding non-scriptural matter. 
In this new period several scriptural gems are set together 
so as to form a single artistic piece of jewelry. In the first 
period the unity of each scripture passage was to be found in 
itself. It was inherent. In the characteristic passages of the 
second period the citations have no unity of their own. They 
are wrought into a unity thru the agency of some non-scriptural 
thought or purpose which, working upon them in connection 
with other scriptural references, organizes or coordinates the 
whole into one idea. 

It is also to be observed that in this second period, as well 
as in the first, Tennyson uses each separate scripture passage 
without mutilation or serious alteration. Each citation is taken 
at its face value. The poet is still faithful to the natural and 
ordinary meaning of Scripture. The passages are used for 
their implications, used as side-lights, used for all kinds of sug- 
gestive coloring; but the implications and suggestions are 
never essentially untrue to the natural meanings of the biblical 
passages. Even the swindling mine-promoter in Sea Dreams 
uses the Bible just as an honest Christian might have done. 
This is not true, as will be seen in the following chapters, of 
the Allegorical and Satirical Periods. 



II, Period of Combination 41 

4. This period, moreover, marks a progress in the freedom 
of Tennyson's art. In the first period each scripture passage 
was regarded as an inviolable shrine. It might be restored, 
beautified, or illuminated. But there was, as has already been 
implied, no thought of using it along with other passages as 
mere building-material. The hand of a builder that treats 
old buildings as quarries for new ones is intrinsically much 
more free than the hand that merely restores and beautifies. 
In the period of simplicity the natural sense and meaning of 
the Scripture used controlled the ideas connected with it ; but in 
this second stage the connected ideas control the use of the 
Scripture. It may become a mere fetish and may mislead. In 
Enoch Arden thought-transference is a faithful guide, whereas 
the use of the Bible results in a wrong impression. Annie says 
to Philip, " Enoch lives. That is borne in upon me." When 
at last she married Philip, 

A footstep seem'd to fall beside her path, 
She knew not whence; a whisper on her ear, 

She knew not what. (510-512) 

She was afraid to enter her own house. The bells had rung 
merrily when Annie and Philip were wedded, and far away 
upon his lone island Enoch heard his parish bells peal faintly 
but merrily and started up shuddering.^ The very night, in 
fact the very moment, that Edith died, Leolin, as the story is 
told in Aylmer's Field, shrieked her name in his sleep.^ Thus 
Tennyson during this second period appears to have been 
strongly under the influence of the idea of thought-transference. 
He asked the question: 

Star to star vibrates light; may soul to soul 

Strike through a finer element of her own? 

So, — from afar, — touch as at once? (578-580) 

If Annie had obeyed this true and faithful instinct she would 
have delayed her marriage to Philip, and Enoch on his return 
would have been spared his agony ; but she consulted her Bible. 

' Cf . 507 S. and 609 flf. * 576-592. 



42 Tennyson's Use of the Bible 

It is true she used it as a fetish ; she sprang up in the night, 
flung it open, put her finger on the page at random, and read, 
" Under the palm-tree." She closed the book, slept, and dreamed 
of Enoch sitting under a palm. He must be in heaven, she 
thought, where the palms are. So she married Philip. The 
fact that Tennyson could describe so finely the superstitious use 
of the Bible by Annie is suggestive. The simple and religious 
woman to whom the portrait of Mary in In Memoriam is likened 
stands in strong contrast to the biblically misled but also sim- 
ple and religious wife of Enoch. Annie's use of the Bible may 
be realistic, but in his first period Tennyson would scarcely have 
felt free or have had the heart to draw the portrait. Yet for 
the artistic combination of small portions of Scripture into the 
larger unities of the period of combination some such larger 
liberty of feeling in regard to the biblical literature as a whole 
seems naturally required. 

5 (a) . The period of combination is marked off from the later 
periods by two interesting facts. In a succeeding period 
Scripture is used for the purposes of allegory. 'No such use is 
made in the present period. But this is not because the period 
contains no allegory. In Sea^Dreams there is a fine allegorical 
picture of a mystic, incoming tide charged with destruction and 
with music. Critics interpret it antithetically. For Brooke it 
is the great incoming deep of eternal love destroying the imper- 
manent forms of religion over which men quarrel.^ Van Dyke 
thinks it is the rising tide of doubt threatening to undermine and 
overwhelm the beliefs of the past.^ This allegory, tho relat- 
ing to religious truth and naturally allied to Scripture, is not 
expressed in biblical language or with the help of biblical allus- 
ions. This fact shows that in this second period Tennyson had 
not yet permitted himself to use biblical language for purposes 
of allegory. 

(&). The other fact referred to is that, altho this period con- 

^ Stopford Brooke, Tennyson: His Art and Relation to Modern Times, pp. 
42 f. 

* Henry Van Dyke, The Gospel for an Age of Doubt, pp. 20 f. 



II, Period of Combination 43 

tains no biblical satire, the satiric mood is not absent. In 
Sea Dreams the mine-promoter's use of Scripture gives the 
effect of " measureless satire." In Averill's sermon in Aylmer's 
Field allusions to Scripture are poured forth in a torrent of 
molten scorn; but there is no irreverent use in all this satire. 
ISTot a line of it is at the expense of Scripture. In the satirical 
period Tennyson constructs his most effective satire by putting 
blasphemous uses of sacred words into the mouths of bad char- 
acters. The fact that the satire of this present period is in this 
respect reverent, or supposedly reverent, is an additional proof 
that it is clearly separate from the period of satire as well as 
from the period of allegory, so far as this distinction relates to 
the use of biblical material. 



VITA 

I was born in Philadelphia, Pa., but my family removed to 
Chicago while I was still a child. My preparation for college 
was at the University High School from which I proceeded to 
the University of Chicago, where I obtained the degree of A. B. 
in 1907. In 1910 I attended the summer semester at the Uni- 
versity of Berlin, Germany, pursuing studies under Professor 
Brandl and Professor Spies. In 1912-13 I held the position of 
Head of the English Department, Hardin College, Mexico, Mo. 
I then returned to the University of Chicago and after two 
years of graduate work in English received the degree of A. M. 
(1915). 

In October, 1915, I entered the Johns Hopkins University 
and during the two following yea'r'^' ^»° Ciigaged in the study of 
English, Greek, and Germanic Philology. I was appointed fel- 
low in English for the year 1916-17. 

It gives me pleasure to avail myself of this opportunity to 
express my thanks to all my former teachers at the University 
of Chicago. For instruction and guidance during the past two 
years I am sincerely thankful to Professors Bright, Miller, and 
Collitz ; and especially I wish to thank Professor Bright, whose 
scholarly attainments and whose loyalty to truth have been a 
constant inspiration. 

Edna Moore Robinson. 
Baltimore, Md., June 12, 1917. 



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